Creating a UX Strategy for Digital Experiences
Before developing prototypes, sitemaps, and wireframes, we must raise questions regarding the product as much as possible. So, nothing is better than knowing the circle involving the user experience, whereas decisions are based on user-centred design in digital initiatives.
User Experience's purpose is to make it easy and pleasant to interact and contact users with your brand through its products or services, viewing elements, communication, or usability. It’s essential to comprise all the variables, such as a person's desires, emotions and experiences.
Some companies often “predict” behaviours or actions of their customers without study, research, or testing, just by feeling or not knowing the use and value of your business process.
We need to understand more about people and, therefore, to work with UX; we should create a checklist, starting with a framework to organize the flow of ideas, since there are various areas of knowledge in a relationship at all times within an epic, especially involving User Experience Design. So we can work with four steps:
COLLECT PROBLEMS > IDEAS TO SOLUTIONS > SETTING SEGMENTAL PRIORITIES > WORKING ON IDEA
The UX Strategy functions as an integral decision-making framework guiding the design team. It intricately maps out how the user experience is not just a facet of design but a pivotal contributor to achieving broader business goals. In the following paragraphs, we’ll explore some relevant UX strategy frameworks, providing a deeper understanding of how they can be effectively utilized in digital project development.
Kanban Board
We can use different UX design techniques to organize ideas, including Kanban (Visual Signaling). Various apps and software use this technique (like Trello). The frame and your sticky notes are often used in room strategies. The main decisions are taken together, especially at the beginning of a digital initiative, including UX design.
Another tool that uses Kaban in a holistic view is 360 ° View. It is possible to answer frequently asked questions of the business as a whole.
360-degree View Diagram
Business Goals
- What are the business challenges?
- What is profitable?
User Needs
- What do people need?
- What is valuable and enjoyable?
- What kind of problems are users experiencing?
Technology
- What is feasible?
- What features can be built now or later?
The opportunity is at the intersection of User needs, Business, and Technology. This 360° view method is one of the best ways to analyze user needs. This type of diagram can be changed by updating the account in the agile scope.
Proto-persona
It’s time to find out who your user name is, your needs, goals, behaviour (problems, hobbies, etc.), and demographic information. For this, a widespread exercise is brainstorming with a short questionnaire among the UX team to each report their assumptions and observations about your target users and use your answers to create the first draft of the proto-persona.
Soon after, you should group all the information and continue the design phase. All assumptions and data collected should be noted, especially on how to use your product/service.
Name the proto-persona and outline how they can be. It is essential to “humanize” the proto-persona: it must create empathy within your team and bring it to life in a way your team can easily understand.
They may appear in different profiles of people using your service or interface. So, you can create separate profiles, defining primary and secondary proto-personas, for example. However, it is essential to know that proto-persona is the beta version of the ultimate persona. We need to study this type of persona through interviews and survey research about the User.
Blueprint Strategy
Blueprint is a map showing all points of contact between consumer and brand, as well as the internal procedures necessary for this from happening interaction. It is useful to view the path that consumers run across multiple channels, for example (site, SAC, e-commerce) and to identify opportunities for improvement. — Fabrício Teixeira
In the Blueprint strategy, we must answer some questions on different boards. Here are some examples:
Challenges
- What problems are you trying to solve? What obstacles did you overcome?
Aspirations
- What are the ideal desired results?
- What do you want to achieve?
Focus areas
- What is the scope of the strategy?
- What are you going to focus on the most significant impact?
Guidelines
- How will we overcome the challenges?
- What specific mantras will guide the teams?
Activities
- What kind of activities solve problems?
- What capabilities reach their aspirations?
Measurements
- What kinds of measures do you employ?
- What metrics will be used to succeed?
According to the UX Blueprint strategic model, there is no initial risk of experimenting with alternatives: cross items, move notes, rework ideas, knead and start over. The strategy will be developed here, starting with the challenges and aspirations.
After that, define where they fit. It exposes the strategic choice dependencies, an advantage of the Blueprint: allowing you to see all the elements simultaneously. You can use the Blueprint of the UX strategy in several situations, such as briefings or launch meetings, to guide the discussion and stay focused on the exercise, as it builds a panel based on consensus.
Consumer Journey Map
The consumer journey map is a guided graph that describes a user’s journey, representing the different points of contact that characterize their interaction with the service.
The Consumer Journey Map describes the interaction step by step, emphasizing aspects such as the flow of information and devices. At the same time, there is a higher level of synthesis. Designers can define what motivates the consumer’s real needs in this stage, analyzing each navigation step.
Stakeholders interviews
The stakeholders must review the interview script, from company employees to external people concerned with the final approval. Here come the decision-makers in different aspects of the business. Ideas can be shared anonymously to guarantee suitability as they come from other areas. At this moment, the collection of insights is fundamental for the definition of business success goals and the prioritization of its functionalities.
Barbara Miotto, a designer based on the book Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services by Kim Goodwin, created an essential list that we share below:
* Replace these words with the names of your business problem, product, etc.
About the product:
• What will this new product * be?
• What worries you about this product *? What’s the worst that could happen?
• What are the business expectations for this product *?
• What would you define as success?
• What do we still need to clarify?
• What are our biggest competitors?
About users:
• Who is this new product for *?
• What kind of interview with the User would be relevant to this initiative?
• Who do we expect users to be five years from now?
On the relationship of people with the digital initiative:
• What is your role in this business problem/product scenario?
• I will talk to [person 1] *, [person 2] * and [person 3] *. Is there anyone else I should talk to?
Questions to Marketing stakeholders:
• Who are your customers today, and how could they be different five years from now?
• How does this product fit into the company’s product portfolio?
• What are [Brand] *’s most significant competitors? What are the company’s points of concern about them?
• How do you think this product could be differentiated?
• What do you think of the company’s current identity *, and how does it influence this initiative?
Practical information:
• What has already been defined about this initiative*? Who defined it?
• What are the constraints for this initiative*?
• What technical decisions were made?
• When will this new version be released?
Strategic planning by the UX Designer towards the design process of a product or service holds paramount importance in determining sprint success. Engaging users and stakeholders in each stage of the process while maintaining clarity on the business objectives & technical possibilities can help establish a solid design around user satisfaction.
Constantly iterating upon strategies based on feedback gathered through user testing and stakeholder interviews ensures that the epic remains on track. To achieve a successful UX design outcome, it is essential to consider not only creating an aesthetically pleasing interface but also fulfilling the user’s requirements alongside business goals and technical feasibility.
